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July 28, 2007

Civil War was slow to end in territory

By Jonita Mullins

With the exception of the Battle of Honey Springs, there were few significant battles fought in Indian Territory during the Civil War. This did not mean, however, that the war did not have a significant impact on the territory. For the four years that the war raged back east, it took a slow and hard toll on the people in Indian Country.

Many small skirmishes took place until federal troops marched down the Texas Road and re-occupied Fort Gibson in 1863. Under General James Blunt, these troops, which included the First Kansas (Colored) Volunteer Infantry, worked to secure Indian Territory for the North. Their victory at Honey Springs basically achieved this goal. Confederate troops were driven further south and the Arkansas River and Texas Road were under federal control.

From that point forward, supply raids and guerrilla attacks by gangs such as Quantrill’s Band terrorized the population. Many sought refuge either at Fort Gibson or one of the Confederate held forts such as Washita, Arbuckle and Towson. Others fled to Kansas or Texas depending upon their sympathies.

Confederate General Stand Waite, a Cherokee, led several attacks against federal supply lines with mixed results. In 1864, his troops captured the steamboat J.R. Williams as it traveled up the Arkansas River with supplies for Fort Gibson. Later that same year, Waite’s men took a large wagon train of Union supplies at Cabin Creek (near Big Cabin).

These supplies, as well as the horses and mules pulling the wagons, were shared among the troops and their impoverished families. These small victories fed the Southern sympathizers, but Waite had no success in driving out the federal troops.

Stand Waite holds two distinctions in the Civil War. First, he was the only Native American during the war to attain the rank of general. Second, he was the last Confederate general to surrender at the war’s end. This was not so much due to Waite’s tenacity, but rather to the slow travel of communications. While Robert E. Lee had surrendered to General Grant in April 1865, news of the surrender did not reach Indian Territory until June. General Waite surrendered to Union officers on June 23, 1865 at Doaksville, Choctaw Nation.

Reach Jonita Mullins at jonita@netscape.com.

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